So again, to reiterate, what
does this book tell us regarding our God leaving or forsaking
us? Or what does He say concerning God forsaking His people? As
that hymn I quoted, it's How Firm a Foundation, what more
can He say to you that He has said in this book? Well, Deuteronomy
chapter 4 and verse 31, For the Lord thy God is a merciful
God. He will not forsake thee, neither
destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which
he sware unto them. That word forsake is let alone. He will not let us alone. Deuteronomy 31. Like I said,
we're looking at like 11 verses or so, but there's many more
specifically referring to what this Bible says regarding God
forsaking His people. Deuteronomy 31 and verse 6, Be
strong and of good courage, fear not, be not afraid of them, for
the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go before thee, doth go
with thee, He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." That word
means, forsake means to leave off. He will not leave us off. He will not leave us. The same
chapter, Deuteronomy 31 verse 8. And the Lord, He it is that
doth go before thee, He will be with thee, He will not fail
thee, neither forsake thee, fear not, neither be dismayed, for
that is also leave off." Joshua chapter 1 and verse 5. There shall not any man be able
to stand before Thee all the days of my life. As I, Jehovah,
was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee,
nor forsake thee." I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And that's the same word, to
leave off. 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 12. I want us
to look at all these, just making a point here. First Samuel chapter
12 and verse 22. For the Lord, that
is Jehovah, will not forsake His people for His great namesake,
because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. That word forsake means to cast
off. He will not cast off. He will
not cast off His people, because it pleased the Lord to make you
His people." 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 6 and verse 13. God says, I will dwell among
the children of Israel and will not forsake My people Israel. I will not forsake my people
Israel." 1 Chronicles 28. 1 Chronicles 28. And verse 20, And David said to Solomon
his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it, fear not,
nor be dismayed, For the Lord God, even my God will be with
thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake
thee until thou has finished all the work for the service
of the house of the Lord. Psalms 94. Psalms 94. And verse 14, Psalms 94, 14,
For the LORD will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake
His inheritance. Isaiah 41 Isaiah 41 And verse 17, When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them." Isaiah 42, verse
16. Isaiah 42, verse 16. And I, God,
will bring the blind by a way that they knew not. I will lead
them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness
light before them, and crooked things straight. These things
will I do unto them, and not forsake them." Hebrews chapter
13. Hebrews chapter 13. We just finished
this when we were in Hebrews, but reading it again is always
a good thing. Hebrews chapter 13. And verse five, let your conversation
be without covetousness and be content with such things as you
have. For he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. Now, according to those who know
so much more than I do about the Greek and the Hebrew and
the original language, this in Hebrews 13 and verse five, this
is a How would you say it? It's five negatives. Five negatives. No never, no never, no never. It's to assure His people that forsaking His people is
not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Come
what may, It's assuring His people. I don't know if there's five
negatives if used anywhere else or not, but it's used here in
Hebrews. I'll never, no never, no never
forsake Thee. So that's the establishing Jehovah's
truth. This is a passage of Scripture
to establishing Jehovah's truth to His people. Now I want to
reaffirm this truth by asking, how often does our Heavenly Father
need to say this to His dear children? How often does He need to tell
us? Because oftentimes we live our life as though God's going
to forsake us. Do we not? I don't know if I've
got enough money to cover bills. I don't know if I've got enough
money to cover this car payment. I don't know if anybody here
has ever said, I don't have enough money to get me some food as we go
stop by the cup mart and pick up this and that and other things.
How often does our Lord need to tell us this? Well, I just
gave us 11 passages and explained what that word forsake and fail
means. And we understand that this is an established truth
for His people. So I reaffirm again, how often
does our Heavenly Father need to say this to His dear children? Our God, the God of the Bible,
who cannot lie, says. Our Redeemer, who has already
conquered death for us. The Great I Am, who spoke and
the worlds were formed. Our Elder Brother, who sticks
up for us at all times. Our substitute who laid down
his life for all and every one of his dear sheep. Our shepherd
who will care and protect his weak and frail flock. Our sovereign
who has us under his everlasting arms so that no man can pluck
us out. So I reaffirm this truth using
these names of Jehovah names of our Lord, to re-establish
the truth of what He's already said. What more can He say to
us than He has said in this Word? But there's objections. We have
objections. First objection, what about trials? I thought when you were a believer,
we saw this yesterday when we were coming back from St. Louis,
sitting there and a lady pulled next to me and right on the front
up or by the car door, you know, where they have names like AJ
Foyt and stuff like that, you know. She had blessed, blessed. And everybody misconstrues stuff
with being blessed. But we have objections. The first
one is, what about trials? Yes, we will have them. We're
not exempt. Hard times? Yes. Times of weakness? Absolutely. Times that we lose
loved ones very near and dear to us? Yes. Times of affliction? Of course. Demotion or promotion? Yes, yes, yes. The objection is laid to the
Bible and says, But I have this, or Moses, I can't speak for you.
And God says, I made your tongue. Paul says, I asked the Lord three
times to get rid of this. And he said, my grace is sufficient. So the believer, we've got no,
we've got objections, but they're all met head on in the word of
God. Yet Mr. J.C. Ryle says, we trust
him who is too wise to err and too loving to do us harm. Isaiah 58. Turn with me to Isaiah 58. And verse 11. Isaiah 58 and the
Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought
and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a water garden
and like a spring of water whose waters fail not." Well, let's
just go through this, just the first part of this verse. Who's
speaking? The Lord, Jehovah, the Great
I Am, Yahweh, however you want to pronounce it, the King of
kings and Lord of lords. Shall, not maybe, not if you're
good enough to get His attention. You know, our works are as filthy
rags. Jehovah shall, not maybe, His
shalls are money in the bank, shall guide, Jehovah, Lord shall
guide, direct our steps. The casting of the lot, it says
in Proverbs, the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord and He's
for us and not against us. He will not forsake us or leave
us. The Lord shall guide thee, us,
his elect people whom he foreknew." Continually. I like that word
continually. Without detour, without interruption,
without fail. So yes, we have trials. That's
an objection. We have trials, difficulties. The more I visit family and see
less family members to visit, it's very poignant to me that
we're all going to go the way of the earth. We're going to
pass on. We're going to die. The believer, it's sleep. Sleep. So these objections are met,
this first objection is met with the scriptures. And by faith,
we're persuaded that He's able to do all that He's performed.
The second objection, perhaps the most difficult one, my mind
seems to be thinking about this and J.C. Ryle just seems to be,
where I'm at reading him, he just keeps bringing this up,
so I've got to deal with it. That's an objection. What about
my end? What about when I close my eyes
in death? John chapter 21. I've never ever
looked at this this way. thanks to Mr. Ryle, that which
I feared is a comfort. John chapter 21, verses 18 and
19, you remember he's speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
back with his disciples, and he's speaking to his disciples
And he says, lovest thou me, you know, to Peter, feed my sheep.
Lovest thou, he's asking three times. Peter's grieved. And he
says the last time in verse 17, Peter says, you know, I love
thee. And Christ said to him, feed my sheep. And in verse 18
and 19, verily, verily, Christ said unto Peter, when you were
young, you girdest thyself and walkest whither you would. But
when you get old, Thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and
another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest
not." This spake Christ, and he specifically tells us what
he's talking about so we don't have to guess, signifying by
what death Peter should glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
Christ, he said to Peter, follow me. Our Savior knows our beginnings. and our ends. And I'm not knocking
physical fitness, but you ain't going to increase your life one
second. So you just, so I'm not going
to do anything. No, be responsible. But I'm saying sometimes we think
we're doing all this stuff and we're going to, I'm going to,
I'm going to live. I'm going to know we live. There's a day at which
the Lord will call us because he knows our beginnings and our
ends. Peter, He's grieved that the Lord said to him, ask him,
question him if he loved him. And then he goes right in and
says, this is how you're going to die. Our Lord knows, predestinated
everything that this man was going to happen. He has worked
every detail to bring Peter to glory. Now this is a scary passage
in a sense, but it should be very comforting to the people
of God. Know that everything is ordained and predestined and
will work out for our good and His glory. He knows and directs
our whole life and knows exactly when it will end, as here with
Peter. We should not live in unbelief
and fret and murmur or lose our head, but rather be assured that
from birth to death He will never, never forsake us. Now, humanly, if I had this kind
of knowledge, it would be very depressing. If I knew exactly
when I was going to go, and I couldn't prevent it, but these
things are not in our hands, they're in His hands, and we've
established the truth that He will never leave us, nor forsake
us. But I found this last thought
interesting. Look at what our Lord says to
Peter. Impetuous Peter, froward Peter,
sometimes unbelieving Peter. Does it sound like us? Does it
sound like you? Sounds like me? Look at what he says. He tells
him how he's going to die, which that would just, I mean, that
would just blow my mind. But instead of fretting and worrying
and everything, he just simply says, follow me. Follow me. So when you're going
to your job or you're not going to your job, but when you're
going to the store, whatever you're doing, we live in a realization that our
days are numbered. But we also live in the faithful
realization that he will never leave nor forsake us. So therefore,
We follow Him. This is the answer. Every situation,
every trial, every difficult time, whether you're contemplating
death, we spoke of prayer for brethren who have difficult situations
physically. Follow Christ. Follow Christ. It may be in a nursing home and
that's not what we want. But follow Christ. You think, he
says, Peter, somebody's going to gird thee and they're going
to take you where you don't want to go. Follow Christ. Follow Christ. And be at peace
amongst yourselves. He truly leads his dear children
along as we sing in that song. So I tell myself, as I look at
this, because it's easy to stand up here and just spout a few
truths, That's why we look at the Scriptures. That's why we
look at so many Scriptures. Maybe Deuteronomy blessed you. Maybe
Joshua blessed you. Maybe Samuel blessed you. It's
all over this book. He will not forsake His inheritance,
His people whom He foreknew. So I tell myself and I tell us
once more, follow Christ and trust Him and His promise. As Old Spurgeon would say, take
this, any one of these passages, and appropriate that to yourself. Lord, I take this. And just realize, no never, no
never, times three more no nevers. Will he forsake his precious
children? Why? Because this book tells
us. And if we are his heritage, We
are the inheritance. It's for us. May the Lord bless
the reading and preaching of His Word. Matt, would you close
us please?